A New Audience Will Probably Hate You

Here's something I learned programming radio stations that I forgot until this week.

Familiarity comes before fondness.

When we'd add a new song, listeners had to hear it multiple times before they even knew it existed. Then, a few more times before there was any chance they’d say they liked the song. It didn’t matter the song or artist. The familiarity scores always ran ahead of the like scores. Always.

I was reminded of this as I’ve started to promote my new show Businessing with Pat Miller on TikTok. First round of comments? Brutal. Some of the nastiest comments you can imagine. I couldn't look. It was crushing.

As the algorithm figured out who my people were, and showed that audience a few of my clips, the likes climbed and the nasty comments dropped.

The takeaway is that if you want to grow your business you need to get in front of people that don’t know you. And at first, you’re not going to get a warm welcome. You may feel ignored or insulted as a “cold” audience rejects the unfamiliar.

If you keep showing up however, you’ll connect with the right people and your opportunities will emerge.

I don’t want to brag or anything, but I have 223 followers on TikTok now - I’m kind of a big deal. (lol) I’m going to keep posting there just to see what happens and so more people can be invited to join the daily show for business owners that I’m hosting.

Wherever you’re meeting people for the first time - DON’T GIVE UP!

The #1 Song in the US is Fake

The #1 song on iTunes right now is by an artist who doesn't exist.

Her name is Ingarose. Her track is "Celebrate Me." (check it out, it’s shockingly not horrible) She has an Instagram and a TikTok but she’s not real. A guy in Greenville, South Carolina fed lyrics through Suno (an AI music tool, about $10/month), wrapped it in a fake persona, and seeded it with AI-generated clips. It sold enough $1.29 singles to top the chart globally.

But wait, it gets worse…Podcast Index says only 44.6% of new podcasts launched in the last 24 hours are "likely legitimate." (Meaning, made by a person) One company dropped 20 wellness podcasts in 75 minutes. Fake hosts. Real "advice."

I’ve been jumping up and down for a long time now that you MUST find your people in person and online. Being a part of a community where you can connect with other humans is more valuable than ever. I’m seeing this with the Small Business Owners Community as we’ve just reached a record-high membership! (I’m grilling weenies this weekend to celebrate. Bring beer.)

The world is getting more synthetic…get real.

Keynote Speaker: Mike Michalowicz!

If you don't know the name, you know his book. Profit First. The book that changed how hundreds of thousands of small business owners think about their money.

And he's coming to our 6th Annual Conference in person! But he's not talking about Profit First. He's talking about what comes next.

His new book is called The Money Habit. Profit First was about how your money handles your business. The Money Habit is about how you and your family handle the money your business makes.

You bring it home...then what? What do you do with it? How do you make sure the money you worked so hard to earn actually serves the life you're trying to build?

Mike will join us for his talk AND an Idea Slam lunch where we will solve problems and capture opportunities together for our attendees - live without a net…it’s going to be wild!

And, the ticket situation is going to look like an old school Black Friday stampede. We have 115 tickets available for sale and we now have 235 people waiting to get them. The tickets will go on sale on May 13, but the wait list will be able to snag a ticket the day prior (5/12.) If you want a chance to cut the line, I recommend you get on the free, no obligation wait list NOW by clicking here.

Now, GO SELL SOMETHING!

Pat